School..

Bad blogger, no biscuit!

I mentioned back earlier that Ella would be starting school on the 17th, and it's almost two weeks after that and I've not blogged about it. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. So, there's no a LOT to blog about, and I apologize in advance if this post is a bit long and desne.

In any event, Ella is taking well to school. During the first week there was definitely some crying, particularly while being dropped off, but she has now acclimated to school as a part of her regular routine. Of course, she's off 7 school days in a row for spring break starting Friday, so we'll see how she does after a longer break than just a weekend.

Ella's class consists of 8 children, a few of whom are typically developing and the rest are other children with delays from a variety of different situations. Being a toddler class, the classes are mostly learning play oriented. The staff consists of a teacher, a few teaching assistants, and 3 therapists. Generally speaking, the therapists rotate in and out of the class, while the rest of the staff is present more-or-less every day. The children spend most of their time in group activities, and some of their time one-on-one with a therapist.

As for communicating home, there are a couple of things that are used to keep us informed. Every day, there's a binder that she takes to school with her, and brings home when she's done. These binders contain a series of laminated pages with pictures of the other children, staff, foods and toys. Near the end of the day, one of the staff places stickers on the pictures of who and what she played with, and what she snacked on at snack time. The binder also allows us to pass notes and references to the school staff, such as the list of Ella's signs we've placed in there.

In addition, Ella's teacher comes to our house once a week. We've only had one of these sessions so far, but these visits mostly focus on passing information back and forth. Her teacher tells us what she's been doing in class, and we tell her about some of her recent developments at home. Of course, Ella participates in the meetings to. This gives her teacher a chance to see some of the things Ella does in a home environment, where she's more comfortable, that she won't do in school.

One thing I have noticed is that she's been *really* excited about babbling lately. Obviously I can't prove the extra social interaction is causing it, but it's certainly not hurting. Also, Mental Mother tells me she's been coming home rather tired and napping quite hard most days. That's also a good sign, as it means the class is successfully stimulating her.

Whew. That's quite a dense post. I'll (hopefully) post more in the next few days.